If ever a space program lived up to its name, Project Gemini certainly did.
When NASA announced the follow up to the Mercury Program 50 years ago this week, the agency also revealed the name chosen for the new program -- Gemini, Latin for "the twins."
In numerous ways, Gemini reflected the dichotomous nature of its name. Gemini doubled Mercury's crew size to two astronauts. Its longest mission was in space two weeks. It was the first time two spacecraft docked in orbit, or that two manned vehicle rendezvoused closely in space.
But perhaps the most remembered moment of the Gemini program wasn't about twos.
Instead, it was about one singular sight of one man -- astronaut Ed White floating alone outside the spacecraft, his white spacesuit framed against the blue of the Earth and the black of space.
Ed White's spacewalk on the Gemini 4 mission in 1965 wasn't the first time someone had performed an "extravehicular activity" in orbit; that honor belonged to Soviet cosmonaut Alexey Leonov.
But White's spacewalk, which did outlast Leonov's, was a major accomplishment for NASA nonetheless -- it proved that NASA was catching up with the Soviets, and, at least as importantly, it brought the moon one small step closer. When NASA accomplished President Kennedy's mandate of landing a man on the moon, the goal wasn't just to touch down in a spacecraft, the goal was to put footprints in the lunar dust. To do that, the moonwalkers would have to leave the safe confines of their vehicle and exit into the vacuum outside. When Ed White made his walk outside Gemini 4, he proved that Neil Armstrong would be able to make a giant leap of his own four years later.
Which isn't to say that there weren't a few improvements to be made. When Armstrong walked on the moon, his spacesuit was entirely self-contained. White, on the other hand, was still connected to his spacecraft.
As part of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center's Gemini display in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration, visitors can see an example of what kept White attached -- a 25-foot gold-plated umbilical tether, which provided life support and communication from his capsule.
At first glance, it may not look like much. But that golden tether was not only the connection between White and his capsule -- it was, in a very real way, a connection between Earth and the moon.
Contributing Author: David Hitt
